Rising out of Difficulty

We often find ourselves in the midst of difficulty. How we respond makes all the difference in the world as to whether we sink or survive. I read a story a few years ago that put a new perspective on the subject for me and I thought you might enjoy it also. A farmer had a mule that was old. He decided not to shoot the mule but to put him in an old well and bury him alive. Every day or two he would come and dump stuff into the well. The old mule would just shake it off day by day and move up a little bit higher. The final day arrived and the farmer came along with a load of rocks and tires. He dumped it in. They fell on the mule and hurt the mule but he shook it off and stood on it and said "this well is not my limit." He stepped on the stuff jumped out of the well and ran across the pasture, stopped at a stream and drank some water. He looked up at the farmer and said, "you tried to bury me but you only gave me stepping stones to success." Our difficulty can be the grave that buries us or the platform that saves us. As troublesome as it may be, let my encourage you to shake yourself and rise above those things that would try to bury you and keep you from your destiny.